Riding the Metro

After a year of saying “we need to ride the Metro”, we finally did, just to see what the experience was like. In fact, we made a day of it. Ride down in the morning, Jared, Little Guy, and I, catch lunch at the Driskill, take the free tour of the State Capitol, meet up with friends, then ride the Metro home.

Here’s the good: The park and ride stations and the train were all very nice, clean, and comfortable. Like all metros, it was nice to avoid rush hour traffic and to be able to do things (check email, take selfies with Little Man, etc) during the trip.

The not-so-good: On our ride back we were lucky to be getting on the train downtown because by the next stop, there were no seats left. And when we exited at the Lakeline Station, there was so much congestion getting out of the parking lot, we wondered if it was enough to negate the time we had made up by taking the Metro. If we were to ride again we would have parked at the Leander station which seems to have the least traffic and is still fairly close to our house.

Overall: It was a charming experience, especially for Little Guy who kept calling it “Tommy Train” after Thomas the Train. We won’t use the Metro on a regular basis, but for a day of family fun and exploring Austin, we will definitely do this again.